Over the next seven days, teams will have the opportunity to waive a player from their rosters, provided that the team and player fit certain criteria. Those criteria have narrowed considerably over the two offseasons in which the amnesty provision has been eligible, cutting the list of players who can be waived by the provision to just 29.

That’s including the two newest prospective amnesty victims, Lakers small forward Metta World Peace and Bobcats forward Tyrus Thomas, who are poised to become the 16th and 17th players waived under the amnesty provision, a complex rule that was included in the last collective bargaining agreement.

Before getting into which players could follow Thomas and World Peace into the amnesty bin, let’s break down how the thing works and where teams stand on amnesty availability:

Rules of the amnesty road

• Only players who were signed to contracts before the institution of the last collective bargaining agreement (2011-’12 season) are eligible to be waived through the amnesty clause. Players who have been traded, even if their contracts predated the last CBA, cannot be amnestied, nor can any player whose contract has been extended or amended.

• Teams that have already used the amnesty provision cannot use it again.

• When a player is amnestied by a team, the team is still responsible for full payment of the player’s salary, though the salary does not count against the team for salary cap or luxury tax purposes. If the player is signed by another team, his new salary is deducted from what his original team owes.

• Players who are waived by amnesty are not immediately unrestricted free agents. They first must pass through a waiver-style bidding process over 48 hours. First, teams have the opportunity to assume the player’s full contract (which never happens). Once that process passes, teams under the salary cap have the opportunity to bid on the player. The highest bid wins, and if there are equal bids, the team with the worse record gets the player. The player may not be re-signed by the team that released him.

Amnestied already

The following teams are not eligible to use their amnesty provision:

Brooklyn, Travis Outlaw

Cleveland, Baron Davis

Dallas, Brendan Haywood*

Denver, Chris Andersen*

Golden State, Charlie Bell

Houston, Luis Scola*

Indiana, James Posey

LA Clippers, Ryan Gomes

Minnesota, Darko Milicic

New Orleans, NA**

New York, Chauncey Billups*

Orlando, Gilbert Arenas

Philadelphia, Elton Brand*

Phoenix, Josh Childress*

Portland, Brandon Roy

Washington, Andray Blatche*

(* Indicates player is still active in the NBA; ** Pelicans have no eligible players for amnesty remaining)